He has only ever said that he placed his son in the care of the Home of Hope in Mchinji because, after his wife died, he could not cope as a single parent and work the fields.

The new claim - made on America's Today Show - appeared intended to explain the apparent gulf between Mr Banda's version of events and Madonna's.

It came as the multi-millionairess sought to counter criticism of the interim adoption with a raft of TV interviews, including one with Kirsty Wark on BBC's Newsnight last night.

Madonna has consistently denied Mr Banda's claims that he and a grandmother visited David regularly. Indeed she has given his lack of visits as the main reason she chose to adopt David out of the 500 children at the orphanage.

She told Newsnight: 'I never met a granny and I was told that from the day that he was left in the orphanage he was not visited by any extended family members and that's really why I became interested in him.

'If someone had said to me, "His dad comes every week or his granny visits on a regular basis and he's well looked after," I would not even have given it another thought.'

On the Today Show, Madonna admitted she had been 'confused' as to why Mr Banda refused her offer of financial help so he could raise the boy himself.

She said she spoke to him in court with the aid of a translator, but admitted there had been language difficulties. 'When I met him, I said, "I would be happy to facilitate to bring him back to your village and help you financially raise him",' the singer claimed.

'And he said no. And there was a lot of translation situations - and I couldn't really understand that decision.'

She added: 'I don't want to judge him (Yohane). And I don't know his life. And I think he truly felt in his heart of hearts that he would have a better life with me.' She said that when he said no to the offer of financial help, that was her sign that it was 'my responsibility to look after him'.

Madonna has been accused of 'buying' David and using her influence to bend adoption laws and fast-track the process.

She hit out at her detractors last night, accusing them of racism, and said she may even adopt again.

'I think it's still considered taboo,' she told Newsnight. 'I have people say to me when I'm walking down the street, "Why did you adopt a black child?" I don't dignify their question with a reply. But there is a lot of racism in the world. I think that's underneath a lot of people's prejudice about me adopting David.'

Yesterday, the BBC was accused of kow-towing to Madonna's commercial demands just to get the Newsnight interview.

In order to land the sought-after one-to-one, Newsnight editors reportedly had to make promises to plug not only her recent world tour, but also the children's book she has just published.

Pre-publicity heralding the interview said: 'Madonna will also be talking about her new children's book Too Good To Be True, the sequel to the worldwide best-seller The English Roses, and her recent Confessions tour.'